Tag: Breakfast

I am a big proponent of breakfast. I love to pamper myself with large lavish breakfast, so whenever I travel my first criterion to choose a hotel is they have a good breakfast bar. My choice for breakfast always include bread and eggs and when they come together there nothing stopping me. Be it the humble bread butter with a side of poached eggs or the Indian style spicy French toast – I love them all. So, when I saw this photo on Pinterest for a French toast roll up, I just had to have it.

I used cream cheese and strawberries for the filling, but to say the least, the options are unending. You can try it with cream cheese and chocolate chips, or nutella and raspberries or the American favorite peanut butter and jam.

Try out these easy to make French roll ups and comment on what you used for the filling.

But I just couldn’t finish the series without a little flavor from the street food of Calcutta (Kolkata). Though many different Asian countries claim for the origin of this dish and among them southern China has the most number of votes, but this particular preparation very well known to everybody who hails from Kolkata or even those who had a visit to the city is typically from the make shift stalls on Kolkata foot paths.

Egg rol

There was one such stall near my dance school called Iceberg (quite contradictory for a joint that sold everything hot), and every month it was a ritual for our gang of friends to have an egg roll from there. I still remember it cost just seven rupees then, but still that was quite expensive for a school-going girl like me. At home, outside food was a taboo and so I always had to cook some stories to have those egg rolls. But alas, eventually mom found out my secret and instead of scolding me I was offered with two egg rolls the next day at tiffin, of course prepared by my mom in her kitchen. School days have passed a long time ago, but I still can’t forget the taste of those road side egg rolls, though my mom’s were quite similar but not that good. My father suggested that the dirt from the road made it taste better.

The egg roll in Kolkata is similar to Frankie of Mumbai and resembles the kathi rolls prepared in many roadside stalls throughout India. Egg roll in Kolkata was probably first introduced by Nizam’s, a very popular restaurant in Kolkata serving Mughlai dishes. Another famous joint serving egg roll in Kolkata is Haji Saheb in Behala (Hazi Saheb for some), it’s my personal request, don’t miss it if you ever visit this place.

Preparation time: 10mins

Cooking time: 8mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour (Maida): 1 cup

Eggs (Dim): 2

Onion (Peyaj): 1 medium, chopped finely

Cucumber (Sasha): one-half of a medium sized, julienned

Green chili (Kacha lanka): 2, chopped

Sunflower oil (Sada tel) for frying

Salt to taste

Tomato sauce for seasoning

Preparation:

Knead the flour well and make two round paratha with it

Beat the eggs with little salt

Heat one tablespoon of oil in a frying pan and add one beaten egg to it, spread it so as to have almost the same diameter as the parantha

Carefully place the parantha over the half fried omelet and allow it to cook for two more minutes, turn around the paratha and cook the other side for one minute and take out from the frying pan

Place the egg covered paratha on a flat surface with the egg side up

Add chopped cucumber, chilies and onion at the centre of the paratha to make the filling and pour the tomato sauce over the vegetables

Roll the paratha and cover half of it with an aluminum foil or kitchen paper and tuck the paper well so that the roll doesn’t open up

Serve hot with little lemon juice over the filling

Hot tips – You can put in a filling of mashed potatoes seasoned with chili powder and salt or even a filling with chicken or mutton kebab tastes great.

Sandwich became popular among the European aristocrats during the late 17th century as a late night meal. But the first use of the word “sandwich” was mentioned much later in 19th century. It was named after John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich. During Montagu’s long hours of gambling he used to order meat in between two bread slices so as not to grease his hands and spoil the cards. Others saw this, got inspired and started ordering for the same food, eventually calling it sandwich.

As the quote above says, it is very true that the better the filling of the sandwich better is its feeling. The one I prepared was a very simple and quick to cook sandwich. You can check this other variation of egg sandwich. Poached egg seasoned with peppercorn and salt can also be used as a sandwich filling.

Preparation time: 6 mins

Cooking time: 10 mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

– Bread slices (Pauruti): 6

– Eggs (Dim): 3

– Freshly grounded peppercorn for seasoning

– Salt to taste

– Cheese/ Butter or other fat spread

Preparation:

Hard boil the eggs, and throw away the shell.

Mash the eggs with a fork or potato masher and season accordingly with peppercorn and salt

Spread each bread slice with softened butter

Spread the mashed eggs over 3 of the bread slices and press lightly with the other three

Cut the sandwiches diagonally and serve with chips or tomato sauce

Boiled Egg Sandwich

Hot Tips – The ideal time to prepare hard boiled eggs is 10mins and then keep those for sometime in cold flowing water. If you want to have a soft boiled egg then just cook for 6 – 8 mins. I used whole wheat bread to prepare the sandwiches; the nutrition count is based on that.

“We plan, we toil, we suffer – in the hope of what? A camel-load of idol’s eyes? The title deeds of Radio City? The empire of Asia? A trip to the moon? No, no, no, no. Simply to wake just in time to smell coffee and bacon and eggs.”

~J.B. Priestly

The wikipedia defines an egg is a round or oval body laid by the female of any number of different species, consisting of an ovum surrounded by layers of membranes and an outer casing, which acts to nourish and protect a developing embryo and its nutrient reserves. Most edible eggs, including bird eggs and turtle eggs, consist of a protective, oval eggshell, the albumen (egg white), the vitellus (egg yolk), and various thin membranes. Every part is edible, although the eggshell is generally discarded. Nutritionally, eggs are considered a good source of protein and choline.

In an (Egg) shell

Well, that’s hardly why we eat Eggs though. Simply put, we eat eggs because we love ‘em. Eggs taste good, are a great source of protein (and amino acids) and most of all, are easy to cook. Traditionally, Bengalis (or for that matter, Indians) didn’t have non vegetarian breakfast. With times, food habits have changed too. Boiled eggs, bread omlette, scrambled/poached eggs are a routine these days.

Starting today, this blog will feature egg recipes for breakfast. These easy 15 (or max 20) minutes easy to cook recipes will help folks who stay alone (office goers/students) and mommies who have a hard time finding that illusive nutritional, easy-to-cook, and tasty breakfast for their kids. We’ll present dishes where egg is present but isn’t necessarily the main ingredient. We start with Mughlai Paratha today.

Mughlai Paratha, as the name suggests, should have dated back from the Mogul (Mughal) days, though we couldn’t find its history in the web. The filling can be of many things, keema (minced meat), potato etc along with other ingredients.

Preparation time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 12mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Refined flour (Maida): 1 cup

Eggs (Dim): 2

Grated coconut (Narkel korano): ½ cup

Onion (Peyaj): 1 medium, finely chopped

Ginger Garlic paste (Ada rasun bata): 1 tablespoon

Green chili (Kacha lanka): 2, chopped

Sunflower oil (Sada tel) to fry

Salt to taste

Mughlai Paratha Preparation

Preparation:

Sift the flour , add ½ teaspoon of salt to it, pour half-cup of water and knead into a soft dough, use more water or fry flour to make the dough non-sticky

Divide the dough into four equal portions and shape into balls, keep aside

For the filling, beat the egg in a bowl, add the crushed coconut , ginger garlic paste, chopped onion, green chilies and salt; mix well

Roll out each ball of dough into a 8 inch diameter paratha and place one-fourth of the filling at the centre of the paratha

Wrap the filling carefully from all sides to make a square

Heat one tablespoon of oil in a pan and place the paratha carefully in it without letting the filling come out

Fry well till both the sides become golden brown, use extra oil if required

Similarly make the other three parathas and serve hot with tomato sauce and potato curry (optional)

There is a always a problem with the left over vegetables of last night at my place. Neither do I feel to throw them out nor eat those just like that. Vegetable omelet was my brain child to cope up with this matter. Its a very easy to cook and ready to eat kind of food and is ideal for breakfast, especially when the house cook do not want to work much for the breakfast table. I used the leftover vegetables or meat for the preparation. You can also use any kind of fresh vegetables or meat for making it up.